Noble Causes Archives Vol 1. Jay Faerber (Writer) Image Comics Inc.(2008)

Thoroughly enjoyable and very good value black & white collection of the first set of miniseries and the first twelve issues of the ongoing excellent superhero series. The best known superheros are carefully guarded company properties entangled in decades of history, revision and counter revision that excludes the casual reader. I had thought the the true future for superhero stories was in animation where the ideas could be revitalised and the essential concepts be revealed. This book proves that superhero comics can be friendly, well thought out, creative and exciting.

Jay Faerber takes the essential science fiction element of superhero's, they are people with extraordinary powers and abilities, and plays it straight down the line to wonderful effect. Thankfully this is no element of knowingness in this book, there is no wink to the audience that really we are all in on the joke, this is simply first rate science fiction.

The premise is simple, Liz Donnelly marries into a family of suprepowered beings, the Noble family and discoverers that they are a family, with all the emotional tangles that involves first and super heroes second. This is how Jay Faerber neatly solves the essential limitation of the superhero concept, how can their adventures be interesting if they are more powerful that everyone else they encounter? There is no tension as they can not be overcome, there may not even be the prospect of it. Like other writers before him, Jay Faerber adds a soap opera element to the mix so that the real difficulties come from themselves rather than some external source. To do this successfully the people inside the costumes have to be as interesting as their powers.

They are, the Noble family are a vividly drawn set of characters who emerge as clear individuals with mixed emotions ad confused motivations that are horribly complicated by being superpowered as well. This is a really enjoyable comic with a solid dramatic and emotional core that supports the varied and exciting stories that Jay Faerber and the wide variety of artists tell. The only drawback to this volume is that the newsprint does come off on to your hands.